As of: March 7, 2024, 6:05 a.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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After Frank Bsirske (Greens) raised an inquiry about citizens' money, the federal government responded.
This causes controversial cheers among the Greens.
Berlin - A response from the federal government to a request from the Greens about citizens' money has caused cheers in the party's ranks.
According to the federal government, the number of people who are now receiving basic security due to loss of employment fell to a new low in Germany last year with the start of citizens' benefit.
The deputy leader of the Green Party in the Bundestag, Andreas Audretsch, wrote in response to this on the short message service
We put facts against it.
In 2023, fewer people switched from a job to basic security than ever before.”
The words of the deputy Green party leader are also likely to be directed against the widespread view that citizens' money is so high that it no longer seems attractive to many people to work at all.
Critics also accuse the government of promoting long-term unemployment.
Statements by Hubertus Heil (SPD) can certainly be interpreted positively
The request had previously been made by Green Party politician and former head of the Verdi union, Frank Bsirske.
Bsirske wanted to know how citizens' money was developing.
Hubertus Heil (SPD) from the Federal Ministry of Labor then officially responded with a few somewhat cryptic sentences.
This contains the following statement: "The entries from employment in the primary labor market to unemployment in the SGB II legal circle were in 2023 with 341,000 entries, 13.7 percent or 54,000 entries lower than in 2022." This is with the so-called first labor market means regular employment subject to social insurance contributions.
Citizens’ money is hidden behind the name “Legal District of the SGB II”.
The Greens' interpretation of the facts only reveals half the truth
As
Focus
now reports,
However, with this interpretation of the facts, some other informative figures have been overlooked.
These were available to the news magazine after a request from the Federal Employment Agency.
On the one hand, there is talk of a total of “3.28 million cases” that will slip into citizens’ money in 2023.
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According to
Focus,
we are deliberately talking about “cases” instead of people because some of them end up on citizens’ money several times a year.
Compared to the year before, when the citizen's benefit was officially called Unemployment Benefit II or colloquially Hartz IV, according to
Focus
, there are a total of 64,000 or two percent more entries.
Many trainees go straight into community benefit after their training
The fact that Ukrainian refugees went directly into the citizen's allowance after their arrival is certainly partly responsible for these high numbers.
However, another factor is added to this aspect, which has already existed since 2021.
The number of people who transfer directly to citizen's benefit as a result of their training has recently increased significantly.
Andreas Audretsch (Greens) giving a speech in the Bundestag © IMAGO
According to the Federal Employment Agency, there were around 855,000 in 2022 and 1.02 million in 2023.
The number of people who switched entirely to receiving citizen's benefit due to inability to work also increased slightly by 30,000 to a total of 1.4 million.
For trainees, citizen's benefit after the end of vocational training seems particularly attractive compared to potentially lower wages.
And the situation is likely to be similar for professional groups or industries with comparable wages.
(fh)